Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Cat Toy Stash And Meadow Planting

First, after posting Monday about figuring out the loss of cable service, I realized I had a couple of pictures that I could have used.  To get at the TV surge protector (to check the cable connections), I had to pull out my stereo rack (yeah I still have old stuff like that).    Well, I discovered 1) that I hadn't cleaned under there for a long time and 2)  Lori has been losing toys under there for a long time!

This is probably a better picture...

BTW, those wheels are a stand to ease rolling out the stereo rack.  I need to get in behind it and do some cable-checking; the stereo isn't working.  It is probably a failed controller box, but I need to hook up each device to the speakers individually to be sure.  I miss having high quality music!

Second, I planted the 40 meadow bed seedlings.  I tried making the holes with a bulb plasnter, but the soil was too hard.  Fortunately, I have an auger that fits into a drill.  Not my own drill and auger, but you get the idea...

That made things easier.  The seedling company suggests randomly planting the seedlings, but since they were of very different heights and it is a small "meadow",  I grouped the largest in the center and the smaller around the edge.  It took a while, and I was pretty tired afterwards.  All that bending over to drill and plant and backfill soil around seedlings is hard on my back and knees these days.  But I got it all done and then set a sprinkler to soak the bed for 2 hours.  

I do what I can to make things easier.  I wear kneepads, wear gloves, and keep an upturned bucket near to use as a support standing back up.  BTW, baseball gloves are great for gardening!  The leather is thin but tough and supple.  They give enough protection from small thorns and dried holly leaves, but you can still feel what you are holding.  If you have a gardener on your gift list, give them a try.

No pictures of that.  Forty 6" seedlings in a 30'x15' bed just don't show up.  I'll wait for flowers.  And there are other flowers in the bed.  I transplanted 8 Black-eyed-Susans from where I later planted the 11 heirloom tomatoes (in new disease-free soil).  Plus, I broadcast a large packet of native wildflowers in mid-May.  Hopefully, it will all be worth it later this year and for some years to come.

Third, after cooling off inside for a half hour, I decided to plant some beans.  Kind of late in the season, but I will get some Sept and Oct.  Even that took work.  I have invasive periwinkle wines  and had to pull many out of the bed and around it.  But it will be worth it to have fresh Italian Flat Beans again.  The canned ones are too soft and salty.

Fourth, still more to do.  My Bok Choy planter succumbed to aphids and some sort of tiny gnat inside.  There are various kinds.  Fungus gnats, drainage gnats, fruit gnats.  I read that the gnats get in when you open a door (and you can't see them) and that most of them find any damp soil with organic matter.  

There are yellow sticky sheets that attract and hold them.  I found  20 sheets of the sticky stuff (and they are double-sided) at Amazon for $9, but I'm sure they are available elsewhere.  I have caught thousands.

I was going to say I can't figure out how the aphids find my inside plants, but I looked up their life-cycle.  Sure enough, there is a winged phase in Spring!  OK, next year, I am going to drape fine-mesh garden fabric over the planters.  Let's see them get through THAT!

If there are aphids in the planters next year, then there were eggs in the planter soil.

Next project is to shallowly till the soil around the Saucer Magnolia in the front yard.  The daffodils have died back, so it is safe for the bulbs.  I will scatter a packet of "deer-resistant" flower seeds in the disturbed soil and see what happens.  

Always something to do.  And I haven't even mentioned in-house stuff.


Thursday, August 3, 2017

Weird Stuff

There is always something new around the yard. 

The last stuff in the broken compost tumbler...
The cleared spot where the original passive compost bin was against the first toolshed .  The lower color is the original color of the T1-11 panels of the toolshed.  Weather wore the panels out more than composting material did.
A weird moth showed up.   It doesn't like to spread its wings, so the picture is strange.  But it has markings I have never seen before.  And after 30 years here, I've seen ALL the regular bugs.  I bet tghis one is newly surviving by warming conditions.
On the other hand, katydids are familiar.  It it their time to show up.  
I saw my 1st japanese beetle in years today.  It was walking around a marigold flower.  I grabbed it and stomped it flat.  I've spread Milky Spore around the yard every few years for a decade.  It is a ground-dwelling bacteria that parasitizes japanese beetle grub larvae.  Seeing one reminds me do apply the milky spore again.  It has been about 7 years.  Milky spore in the soil lasts as long as there is an infestation to feed on.  After that, they die out and need to be reapplied.  But it is a very effective grub control that lasts for years and is not harmful to worms, birds, or pets.  Or humans.

Also, I have castor oil to spread around on the lawn.  The moles have discovered the front yard after all these years.  It makes their insect food taste horrible to them.  I'll start with the centers of the front and back yards to establish a "no good food" zone, and expand it slowly outwards and chase them to the neighbors yards. 

Then I'll tell the neighbors about castor oil spray and let them ruin THEIR moles lives.  As long as I keep them out of my yard, I'm happy to help the neighbors do the same.

And when the moles go, there are fewer voles.  Voles use mole tunnels to travel.  Moles don't eat plants, but voles do.  Fewer moles; fewer voles!

Friday, June 2, 2017

Too Muddy To Dig

After a week of rain, it is still to wet to do much.  Can't rototill the site for the new compost bin, can't mow the grass, can't walk on the soil around the flower beds to weed them.

So here is a picture of the meadow bed as seen from the house...
It is a joy to see every morning, a joy to see when the afternoon sun shines on the flowers, and wonderful to stand next to watching the cloud of happy pollinators visiting all the flowers. 

I am amazed at all the insects!  I have hummingbirds and large butterflies (I really should learn to identify them) but the number of small bees (neither Bumbles nor Honey) is amazing.  I knew OF them, just never saw them in any numbers before.  I think there are some I can encourage more.  Mason bees like nesting in straw-packed cluster.  I have straws.  Carpenter bees like 5/8" holes in scatterred blocks of wood, and I can make those.  Other minor bees and fly pollinators just need the flowers that are growing there. 

This may be the best use of some yard space I've ever done.  I'm generally organic.  This may be the best place they have for a mile around. 

My little neighborhood used to be surrounded by fallow farmland plots and wild fields.  It seems all developed now.  I may be their last good spot to live.  If I ever had a better reason not to move, that's it.

And if they also want to pollinate my veggies, Yay!

Looking Up

 While I was outside with The Mews, I laid back and looked up.  I thought the tree branches and the clouds were kind of nice. Nothing import...